Author: Steven Sahiounie

By Andrew Korybko The US-brokered Taliban-Indian prisoner swap might lead to the resumption of the Afghan peace process but the deal also carries with it somewhat uncomfortable optics for Pakistan since it was likely agreed to during US peace envoy Khalilzad’s “ice-breaking” meeting with the Taliban in Islamabad last week. Last week’s informal meeting between the Taliban and US peace envoy Khalilzad in Islamabad was a lot more important than just a symbolic “ice-breaking” following Trump’s decision to unexpectedly call off peace talks just days before he planned to secretly host the Taliban last month after it’s since been revealed that Washington brokered a Taliban-Indian…

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the United States is an “irrelevant occupier in Syria,” stressing that peace will be achieved in the war-ravaged country only through respect for its territorial integrity and people‎. “US is an irrelevant occupier in Syria—futile to seek its permission or rely on it for security,” Zarif said in a post on his official Twitter account on Monday, after the US gave the green light to Turkey to launch a military operation in northern Syria. “Achieving peace & fighting terror in Syria will only succeed thru respect for its territorial integrity & its people,”…

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Syria’s territorial integrity must be preserved and all foreign troops illegally present in the conflict-plagued Arab country must leave, as the United States announced it was withdrawing troops from northeastern Syria. “Russia’s position, recently announced by President [Vladimir] Putin, is that all foreign troops illegally present in Syria must leave the country,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Monday. The Kremlin spokesman then commented on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement that Ankara is prepared for a military campaign against Kurdish-led militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria, emphasizing Russia’s call for refraining…

By Stephen Lendman Time and again, when peaceful protests turn violent in various countries, US dirty hands are involved. There’s no ambiguity about months of protests in Hong Kong, US dirty hands all over them, local elements involved having met with Trump regime and congressional officials, as well as a US consular one in the city. Nearly a week of violent protests in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, killing over 100, injuring thousands, security forces among the dead and wounded, bear similarity to the US-orchestrated late 2013/early 2014 color revolution in Ukraine. The Euromaidan uprising was and remains all about replacing…

By Sarah Abed On Saturday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that preparations have been made for a unilateral cross border air and land military operation in the next day or two, in northern Syria, east of the Euphrates River. Erdogan expressed his frustration with Washington’s lack of adherence to a September 30th deadline to establish a thirty-kilometer-deep safe zone on Syria’s northern border. In response to Erdogan’s threat, the US-backed Kurdish militia group known as The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stated that they are ready to respond to an unprovoked Turkish attack with an all-out war if necessary. Sandwiched between the Turkish-backed Free Syrian…

An official from Iran’s Ministry of Energy has said that the country would launch new power plants with more than 3,800 megawatts (MW) of capacity until next summer. “Based on the devised plans, 3,864 MW of new power plants will be connected to the country’s national electricity grid before the peak of the next summer,” said Mohsen Tarztalab on Sunday. The announcement means that Iran could add some 34 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity to its current production of above 300 TWh as authorities seek to both increase exports to neighboring countries and increase stability of the domestic network over…

The Saudi announcement comes on the heels of French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement on Monday at a joint press conference with the Sudanese prime minister. Macron said that France would work on convincing the United States to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Saudi Arabia is undertaking efforts to remove Sudan from the US terrorism list, according to a publication posted on the Saudi Foreign Ministry’s Twitter page. The statement comes as President of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok arrived in Riyadh. The Sudanese officials have embarked on their…

Iraqi officials have insisted that government forces did not fire directly at protesters during a brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrations which has left at least 104 people dead and thousands more injured. Security forces have repeatedly used live ammunition in a bid to clamp down on the wave of protests that have swept across Iraq this week. However, Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Saad Maan insisted on Sunday that government forces did not shoot directly at protesting civilians. In a news conference broadcast on state television, Maan said that eight members of the security forces died in the violent clashes…

The 2011 NATO intervention in Libya, which helped topple the government of Muammar Gaddafi, was done to put an end to his attempts to stop foreign exploitation of the continent, the strongman’s wartime spokesman told RT. The bombing campaign, which propped up rebel forces and ultimately led to the summary execution of Gaddafi, was justified by reports of various crimes of its government. Those were later proven to be completely false or largely exaggerated, said Moussa Ibrahim, who served as Gaddafi’s spokesman at the time. In reality NATO bombed Libya not to stop Viagra-assisted mass rapes of women by government loyalists.…

Tunisian presidential front-runner Kais Saied has boycotted the country’s parliamentary election, according to an electoral campaign organiser on Sunday. “Saied has decided to boycott the polls,” Sami al-Aydi told Anadolu Agency. He argued that the presidential candidate opposes holding the parliamentary election on the closed-list electoral system. Saied, a former law professor, secured 18.4% of votes in the first round of presidential election held three week ago, followed by media mogul Nabil Karoui, who won 15.6% of votes. A runoff vote will be held on October 13. Tunisians headed to polls on Sunday to elect their representatives in the parliament. It is the…